


Heart of a Titan

by shepples



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Inspired by Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan, Like at all. nothing about this makes sense, M/M, Made Up Science, Minor Allura/Shiro (Voltron), Minor Matt Holt/Shiro, Near Death Experiences, Not Canon Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Scientist lance (voltron), Soldier Matt Holt (Voltron), Soldier Shiro (Voltron), Titan Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-12 12:49:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29509950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shepples/pseuds/shepples
Summary: Nowhere in Shiro's dreams did this day go so miserably wrong.He was following orders, keeping within his squad, flying through the trees with ease. He didn't even remember when he broke away from formation. It all happened suddenly, one wrong turn and he could no longer reach or hear his squad. The next thing he knows, he's swatted mid air and slammed into a tree like a ragdoll.Before him was a titan, easily a 9 metre. It's frozen face somehow pulled off a smug expression as it toddles towards Shiro. Shiro's hands reach for the blades sitting on his sides, but something' s wrong. His left arm is bound to his side, caught up and tangled in his maneuver wire. And his right throbs with pain, and he distantly remembers it hitting the tree. Try as he might to look past the excruciating pain in his arm and bones, his are won't budge. It must have gotten dislodged or broken. Shit.---Or, it's 2021 and I wrote a very self indulgent Attack on Titan AU for Voltron; Legendary Shit-show.You don't need much knowledge on the Attack on Titan universe, just need too have seen and understood season 1 of the show. If it comes to it, I'll rewrite to make it make more sense to newcomers. Enjoy!
Relationships: Allura/Lotor (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron), Matt Holt/Shiro
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	1. Chapter 1

Shiro’s heart beats loud in his chest and his ears, pumping in tune with his horse’s gallop beneath him. If he weren’t in formation with his peers, he’d rip his head back and yell, an overwhelming sense of freedom flowing through his bones. He’d finally gotten out of the walls, the walls that taunted him his whole life. And it only took joining the survey corps to escape and run free. 

Well, free of society. He was still very much under the strict leadership of Staff Sergeant Alfor and the superior soldiers around him. But the confinement of his surroundings are drowned out by the thunder of the horses’ hooves on the ground, charging towards the tree ridden battlefield. His clothes and cloak rustle with the wind, his metal gear clunks and bangs against his thigh, his ears ring from the rush of the wind. It's everything he’d ever dreamed of and soon he’ll be up in the air in the real Outside for the first time. He's waited for this day all his life, when he gets to propel himself through real trees, in the _real Outside_. He’d fell every Titan he lay eyes on. 

Nothing could ruin this moment for him. 

As the tree-line approaches, his heart roars with adrenaline. He’s done this before, but the wilds are so much more thrilling than the manufactured forests he’d fly through in training. He'd finally feel challenged, no more of the same layout of trees over and over. No more of the ‘too perfect’ grapple sites with wide, easy perches in just the right spots. No more 2d target titans, frozen and place and too easy to sneak up on. No more scruffy training uniform, now he has a real scouts uniform, with gear that works perfectly. He sits up in his saddle, ready to jump and fly.

“Calm down, Recruit.” Says the soldier to his left, her voice is fighting with the wind to meet his ears. “We’re still a few minutes out from the forest. And we need to secure the horses before entering.” she calls. Shiro looks over to greet his neighbour, but his words die in his throat. The soldier's white hair flies wildly in a loose, but tidy braid behind her as she rides cooly. An engraving on her gear, and a perfect fit uniform means she's survived in the corps long enough to have custom equipment. Shiro manages to catch fleeting glimpses on the rank patch on her shoulder as her cloak flies in the wind. Her rank patch depicts an upward facing arrow with twin lightning bolt-like shapes curving around it. It’s a lance Corporal’s insignia. 

The Lance Corporal wasn't looking his way to talk to him, focused on the path in front of her. From what Shiro had heard from her before, and especially now, her accent is like a thick blend of a soldiers and an aristocrat's from the innermost walls.

There's only one person that matches this description: 

His hands slip on his horse's reins and his horse nearly bumbles into hers, but she’s fast and steers her horse away from his, successfully stopping the crash. She sends an incredulous glare at Shiro.  
"You're Lance Corporal Allura-" Shiro breaths out. Somehow she hears his murmur because she huffs out a laugh. 

"And you're new. Listen, don't let the thrill get to you, that's how recruits like you die. Hopped up on adrenaline, you become sloppy." She says, matter-of-factly. "You may feel invincible now, but you're not. You'd do well to drop your high before we get to the trees or you're dead meat." 

Shiro pales, 'surely not me' he thinks proudly, and with a shake of his head. His hands grip the reigns 'I'm top of my class, I'm an expert-' 

"Don't stress about her.” Another soldier speaks up next to, having sped up to join the conversation. “She's just grumpy because recruit season brings overzealous kids that get themselves killed, meaning she has to do more paperwork." the new soldier sneers. This one has shoulder length, dirty blonde hair and a scar on his right cheek. A cheeky grin stretches across his lips as Allura scowls. He wears a rank patch too, similar to Allura’s, but the curving twin lines are blacked out, only leaving the upwards arrow. This stranger is a Private First Class. 

"You better wipe that smug look off your face, Private Holt. And stop encouraging the recruits." she scolds. She flicks her stallions' reigns and rides ahead of them, leaving Shiro alone and in awe. 

"You get used to it." The other soldier, Private Holt, cuts in, tearing his attention away from Allura. "Once you survive your first month, she'll start warming up to you." Holt leans over and punches his side playfully "What's your name?" 

"Takashi Shirogane, but everyone calls me Shiro. It's easier to say." 

"Well, Takashi Shirogane" Holt tries the name out on his tongue, it rolls quite smoothly and naturally, a rare occurrence for Shiro. "I better not see that name on the dead list."

"You won't" Shiro declares, puffing his chest out. 

"Good. Get ready, we're here." Holt says, which finally draws Shiro’s attention back to their path. In the time they've been talking, the trees have been growing closer, they're right at the edge of the forest, the wild, giant trees loom over them. Shiro never thought anything but the walls and the titans could be this huge, but sure enough, here it was. 

Shiro clambers off his horse and ties her up, giving her a half hearted rub on her neck as he gazes up at the trees' grandeur. They're incredible, as thick as houses and as tall as the sky. And soon he'll be up there. The moment couldn't come any sooner. 

\---

Nowhere in Shiro's dreams did this day go so miserably wrong. 

He was following orders, keeping within his squad, flying through the trees with ease. He didn't even remember when he broke away from formation. It all happened suddenly, one wrong turn and he could no longer reach or hear his squad. The next thing he knows, he's swatted mid air and slammed into a tree like a ragdoll. 

Before him was a titan, easily a 9 metre. It's frozen face somehow pulled off a smug expression as it toddles towards Shiro. Shiro's hands reach for the blades sitting on his sides, but something' s wrong. His left arm is bound to his side, caught up and tangled in his maneuver wire. And his right throbs with pain, and he distantly remembers it hitting the tree. Try as he might to look past the excruciating pain in his arm and bones, his are won't budge. It must have gotten dislodged or broken. Shit. 

"Shit!" 

Mouth agape, the titans ugly face inches closer with each of its monstrous steps. Shiro frantically tries again to reach his blades but it's for nothing. His maneuver gear's wires begin to dig through his skin w. His broken arm dangles uselessly, pain coursing through it with each subtle movement. 

"N-no! No! NO!" Horrified, Shiro watches uselessly as the titan approaches. It grabs him and pulls him closer to its mouth. Shiro screams and struggles, tears streak his face as he tries to squirm free. If he made it out of this, his mother would kill him for being so reckless. 

Light becomes a slither in his spot between the titans mouth and hand, then completely disappears as the titan bites. It's teeth grind on the metal wire holding Shiro to the canopy until a sickening _twang_ rings through the cavern that is the titans mouth. 

Dread fills Shiro, until he realises what that means. His wire broke. There's nothing holding his good arm to him. The wires loosen around his form.

"Yes!" Filled with hope and adrenaline, Shiro struggles free of the loosening wires. He doesn't have long to act, if the beast swallows, there's no breaking out. A titan's stomach lining is much stronger than its flesh, which already is impossible to pierce without the special blades the Survey Corp designed. Speaking of the blades. 

Faster than he's ever done, Shiro unsheaths one of the blades with his good hand, and in one fluid motion, cuts the titans tongue. Choking the beast should buy him a second, each one is crucial in a time like this. The first chance he gets, he uses his blade to ram the titans mouth open through a gap between its teeth. Using every ounce of strength he possesses, he pushes the beast's lower jaw down and sacrifices his blade to hold it open. He switches his handle to maneuver wire and attaches to a tree, propelling himself out of the creature's agape mouth. 

The titan wastes no time going after him again, hands flailing hopelessly to grapple him, but Shiro has learnt his lesson. He secures himself on the tree and flies upwards, as far out of the reach of the titans as he can get before the gas tank of his gear sputters out the last of its fuel.

"Shit." Shiro hisses, hitting the side of the tank. "Empty." he curses. He makes quick work to find somewhere safe to stand. 

The tree he settles on quakes and shakes, it’s leaves rustling impossibly loud. Looking down, the titan is standing below him at the foot of the tree and trying stupidly to climb it to retrieve its meal. The tree, like all the others around it are smooth, no chance of the clumsy giant to find purchase and climb. Shiro relaxes a bit and begins to tend to his wound.

His right arm is numb with pain, and it doesn't take long to see why. Somewhere in the frenzy, Shiro didn't notice the titan get a large bit of his arm. A painful looking gash exposes a rose of blood and raw muscle, the surroundings of the bite area are mottled and purple. He swallows his disgust and the bile rises in his throat and thanks whatever God there is that he can't feel this. He cuts a strap from his uniform and tightens it around his arm. 

"That stops blood flow," he murmurs to himself. He tears a piece of his cloak and bounds his arm up tightly with it, "that protects the wound." He gasps as pain soars through his arm as the pressure it applied to his bare wound. "The smell should be covered too, I should only have to deal with one titan." he stares down at the titan from his place on the branch. It mindlessly continues to throw itself against the tree.


	2. Chapter 2

Usually, he didn't care about the goings on of the other titans around him. He couldn't care less about what they did, when, or why, just so long as they left him and his territory alone.    
The others seemed to struggle with this concept, despite how long he had been living here and just how many times he'd enforced this value. He could only grow to accept their empty-headedness after time and time again, his peers refused to get the message. To be fair, he knew they were brainless. There was no intelligence behind them, no light to their eyes like he'd seen in other creatures. Their faces expressionless and their behaviour void of life. 

He knew this, and knew they didn't understand anything, but he still couldn't help to get increasingly annoyed at the other titans disrupting him constantly.   
He didn't know what it could be. They seemed to like trying to eat him, although he never let them get far. Or they liked to disturb him, for what reason though… he didn't know. It was one of the many things he was trying to figure out. 

He'd been living in this area for as long as he can remember. He doesn't know how he got there, or even if he's supposed to remember it in the first place. It doesn't bother him much though. Barely important in his thrilling, face paced life of discovery.  His territory was as well maintained as he could handle. He'd long since learned to care for plant life by using water, and that good plants means more fruits, which means more creatures for him to observe. 

Observing was his most promising pass time, as anything else would break, fail, or injure or draw attention to him in a way he doesn't need. So he sits up in his trees, and simply watches the creatures below interact with one another. He sees them interact, feed, and play. He finds it interesting just how different his species are to the deer grazing below him. Why can't he and the other titans be on the same page?   
He'd learned by now that some kind of understanding between him and the others were impossible, their minds only on one track. So he resolved to just avoid them where possible.   
Although sometimes doing this proves impossible. Like when they're hopelessly piling up at the base of a tree, their pathetic stomping scaring away his animals.  
His eyes sink to half-lidded as he lets out a low grumble, hauling himself up to go over there and shoo them away. 

It doesn't take long to understand why they are clambering at the tree like this, he's seen it before when they find their food out of reach. Which would mean something is in the tree.   
He comes to a halt, does he go forward with shooing them away and risk his presence known by the humans with the sharp sticks? Or mind his business and protect himself first?   
Peering out further, he catches a glimpse of the human that the titans are miserably clawing for. It looks just like the rest; green and white, big loud boxes by its side with the sharp tools in its hands. It's armed, maybe approaching is dangerous. 

But… there's something more. Something deep down pulls him to keep walking forward and thoroughly shoo the titans and help the human. Maybe it's the eyes.   
The eyes, he finds, are good judges of character. Titans eyes are dead, deer are bright and fretful, foxes have sharp and particular eyes. This human seems to have knowing eyes, that bore deep into him.   
He finds himself taking a step forward, something he doesn't remember wanting to do before. But he goes along. 

If he can keep the sharp sticks away from his soft point, maybe he can observe the human. He has always wanted to, maybe this is his chance.   
Yeah, this is his chance to see a human up close.   
He takes a more prideful step forward, more sure of himself this time, and he keeps going. He snaps a branch from the tree, its jagged edge at its breaking point seems sharp enough for what he needs it for and holds it in both hands.   
There are 7, no 8- eight titans dogpiling at the base of the tree. The first lifts it's crooked nose to the air, finding his scent, before it's head swivels to look at him. It groans, he howls in response, finding his first target. 

His steps accelerate to a running pace, getting a strong start before plowing the jagged edge of the branch onto the titan's neck. It lets out a garbled growl, cut short as he tugs his branch back out. Another swing sends the stupid thing's head off its shoulders. He raises his foot to land a finishing blow on the base of its neck, just to be sure. One down, seven left.  
The next one clambers up, following the lead of the first. Another joins, scrambling across the ground to his leg. He swings his branch and the first tumbles, leaving the second with an opening to his leg. It grabs him and opens its maw in an attempt to bite him, but he thrusts his foot up, driving the titans lower jaw up into its head with a sickening crunch. he pulls back, ready to swing, but he leaves an opening for another titan to jump his back and make a bite at his shoulder.   
Teeth sinking in, he roars. The bite dangerously is close to his soft spot. He throws back into a tree and slams the titan on its back, he pulls forward and slams it back again until it loses its grip and drops. He personally tears its soft spot out, nails digging into its flesh, steam billowing up. Two. He hears another beast scrambling for him and he manages to throw the flesh and blood in its face, blinding it so he can stab his tree branch through its neck. 

Three.  The other titans, roused with the smell of his blood, finally notice him and begin making a combined attempt at him. They swarm him, three at once, all with their mouths hanging agape aiming to bite and gnaw. 

With another roar, he winds back his leg and swings. The giant oafs tumble into each other, clashing in a wild tangle of limbs, somewhere in there is the squelch of teeth on flesh and a burst of hot steam. He lands on his feet and rushes over to finish them off. Four. Five. Six.

Two left, and so far they've relatively ignored him. He grabs one by the back of its neck and slams its face into the tree until nothing but a bloody stump is left, billowing with steam and slumping down uselessly. Seven. The last remaining titan gnaws on his arm, no doubt the tiniest titan he's ever. All it takes is a squeeze for its head to burst with his hold.

  
As soon as he ensures each are withering away, he howls again, adrenaline finally wearing off with the fight drawing to an end. He’s never had to fight off this many at once, and so quickly. Which reminds him of what he did this for; the Human.   
It’s perched up in the tree, staring down at him with wide eyes, and he stares back. 

**Author's Note:**

> So that's chapter 1. I want to say, right off the bat, I have no idea if I'll finish this or put out chapters at a regular schedule. I'm only starting to publish this right as I'm about to go back to uni. So.  
> Just to get it out of the way and to manage your expectations; Matt and Shiro and Allura and Lotor, although they will be canon to this fic, will be a bit behind Keith and Lance. They will be there, and I will try to drum up their stories, but just know that exploring my version of AoT is what this fic started as.  
> Who knows, maybe Shatt and Lotura will have a few one shot chapters here and there. We'll see.  
> That being said, how did you enjoy chapter one of my first ever fic? Let me know in the comments, I'll try to answer every one while I can!


End file.
